Connecticut Bans Death Penalty

Breaking: Connecticut became the 17th state in the nation to ban the death penalty on Wednesday after Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a compromise bill that applies to future cases but exempts the 11 inmates currently on the state’s death row.

In a statement, Mr. Malloy said the passage of the ban was a time for “sober reflection, not celebration.”

Mr. Malloy cited the death penalty’s lengthy and costly appeals process in his decision, which put him at odds with the majority of the state’s voters, according to a new poll.

“The people of this state pay for appeal after appeal, and then watch time and again as defendants are marched in front of the cameras, giving them a platform of public attention they don’t deserve. It is sordid attention that rips open never-quite-healed wounds,” Mr. Malloy said.

Recent efforts to end capital punishment in Connecticut have been overshadowed by the 2007 home-invasion murder of three members of the suburban Petit family. The family’s lone surviving member, Dr. William Petit, had lobbied against the appeal.

Supporters have said that exempting the 11 men now awaiting execution—including the two men convicted in the Petit murders–was necessary to getting the repeal passed.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Connecticut voters support capital punishment in general by a 62% to 30% margin. But respondents were split on the appropriate punishment for murder: 46% of said they want the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 46% said they want life in prison with no chance of parole.

Connecticut has only executed one person since 1960: serial killer Michael Ross, who died in 2005 after dropping his appeals.

“The 11 men currently on death row in Connecticut are far more likely to die of old age than they are to be put to death,” Gov. Malloy said.

Illinois was the last state to ban the death penalty, which it repealed in 2011.

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